Perth Prison
HMP Perth is currently the oldest prison still in active use in Scotland[1]. The building, designed by Scotland’s principal Government Architect Robert Reid[2], opened in 1810 to hold French soldiers captured during[3]the Napoleonic wars. By 1842[4], it was repurposed as a public prison and later became the Scottish equivalent of Broadmoor, housing all of Scotland’s criminally insane inmates in cells designed specifically for that purpose[5].
Napoleonic Inmates
Between 1810 and 1815 some 7,000 French prisoners were held there in various levels of confinement. Whilst many were held in bondage, some were allowed to reside in the community provided they signed affidavits promising not to defect home to France. So popular were some of the prisoners of war, that several “respectable” members of the local community began a subscription for the relief of the POWs in Perth[6]. There is some reference to those few who did break their promise, absconding back home, but were returned by the French Government to serve out their sentences in full[7].
During their tenure they were employed in a variety of occupations, from handicrafts, the making of small straw dolls to be sold, of which some ended up in the Edinburgh Museum, to labouring; some of the properties created by them are still in use today[8]. The inmates became such a popular attraction that when they were repatriated in1815,a large crowd gathered to wave them off[9].
Those who did not survive their time in the POW depot were buried in unmarked graves within the prison walls. The area is now paved over however a plaque in remembrance of their interment has since been erected.
British Convictions
From 1815 until 1839, Perth was used as a military store for uniforms and munitions, but with the advent of the Victorian era and the pressures on the transportation system resulting in hulks filled with stranded convicts, the government decided to create prisons for long term incarceration across the country[10].
The Napoleonic depot was redesigned to the blueprint of Joshua Jebb’s model Pentonville prison, to have four radiating wings each with a capacity for 160 inmates[11].
From March 1842, Perth Prison was once again in use as a major penitentiary under the governance of governor, Mr Deverell. Perth Prison was originally run as a unisex establishment, requiring female warders and a matron.
A description of the prison, extracted from the Caledonian Mercury on Thursday the 9th March 1843, described the prison thus;
“ This large prison occupies a fine situation, formerly the site of the depot for French prisoners, at the southern extremity of tie South Inch of Perth, little more than half a mile from the Fair City, and within a couple of hundred yards of the Tay. At present it consists of only two wings, forming the letter V, and connected at the apex by a common entrance and lobby. When the whole building is completed there willbe four wings, and the entrance and lobby will form a small segment of a circle, from which the four wings will form the radii. Each wing consists of four stories, with a range of cells on either hand connected by an intermediate arcade open from the ceiling to the floor. The communication from cell to cell is by projecting platforms or galleries, railed in on their outer extremity by horizontal bars of iron running from end to end.
Standing at the gate opening into the arcade, the whole wing nearly 300 feet long, and not less than 60 feet high, is brought into view, and forms one of the most magnificent pictures one can well conceive. Each cell is from 10 to 12 feet square, and about 11 feet high, arched with stone, and so arranged that danger from fire is impossible, and all communication between the prisoners in their separate cells is effectually excluded. Within the exterior walls of the prison ground, are small airing yards, where the prisoners separately take air and exercise, under the care of the warders, whose business it is to attend them, and prevent them in any way from communicating with each other.
There is also a cooking-house, washing-bouse, laundry, hospital, and various other buildings connected with the purposes of the prison. On the outside are the dwelling-houses of the various functionaries required in the establishment, forming altogether a considerable village. There is a Governor, Chaplain, Surgeon, Clerk, Matron, male and female Warders, and various other subordinates. The prison is fitted to accommodate upwards of 400 prisoners, and at present contains about 300. It was opened for the reception of prisoners on the beginning of March last year, under the Government of Mr Deverell, who remained only till July, when it was placed under the temporary government of Mr Bremner of’ Glasgow, till the appointment of Captain Stuart, late Superintendent of Police of this city, in December.
As this prison was erected by Government for the purpose of trying the effect of lengthened periods of confinement, on a class of offenders, who are supposed not to be so initiated and hardened in vice as to be irreclaimable, and whose offences are not of so desperate a character as to incur a sentence of transportation; it was with no ordinary degree of interest that the writer of this notice was afforded an opportunity of ascertaining the effect of this great national moral experiment, under the direction of Captain Stuart, the new Governor[12].”
The prison functioned reasonably well for many years, the only major issue being that of recidivism or reoffending. One editorial from 1848 stated that has many as two thirds of the inmates of Perth would re-offend. A scathing article assigned this failure to the kindness with which prisoners were treated, advising that warmth, food, solitude, and education being so alien to the general poor, encouraged men to return to a life of crime just to receive that bounty[13].
By 1849 the original specification of the Prison was due to undergo a change again, it is not known whether these changes were due to the publicly perceived failures of the prison or the overall changes overtaking prisons at the time.
Either way, a new set of regulations were issued from the board of Directors of Prisons In Scotland which stated the following:
“That the prisoners who shall be received into the General Prison at Perth shall be male prisoners sentenced to imprisonment for periods of not less than one year; and that no prisoner shall be received therein, the expiration of whose sentence would occur within six months from the date of transmission[14].”
The new regulations also banned the reception of court-martialled inmates at Perth, but continued to allow insane inmates during any point in their sentence so long as there was agreement from the board.
The Prison went on to become one of the few institutions across the United Kingdom suitable for holding the criminally insane and stood alongside the likes of Broadmoor Asylum and Woking Invalid Convict Prison.
By 1851 the hard labour options in the prison were Oakum picking and turning the crank alongside the traditional manual labour expected of inmates[15].
Notable Inmates, Incidents and Executions
Thomas Mathieson Brown – The Mad Murderer
The murder of Grace McKerrow was trailblazing, both in the conception of the crime committed but more importantly, in the way it changed Scottish law forever.
Grace McKerrow was a housekeeper for a man named Mr William Lennox. One day, Mr Lennox received a box of iced shortbread bearing an unsigned note stating “with happy greetings from an old friend”. William, one of his neighbours, Grace and another servant all sampled the shortbread and were immediately overcome by symptoms of strychnine poisoning. Grace, suffering more violently than the others, died within two hours of eating the biscuits.
Thomas Mathieson Brown, who was married to Lennox’s niece, was arrested for the crime, suspicion falling on him as he was an “insane epileptic” who showed no sadness at the death. Moreover, he was found to have a pestle and mortar with what seemed to be strychnine residue within. The case, despite the evidence, went through multiple trials to decide whether Brown was sane enough to even put in a plea to the charge of murder.
In a landmark case, the jury was allowed to decide for the first time whether the accused was insane, rather than it being decided by a judge or medical officer. Brown was deemed to be insane and was sentenced to remain in the criminal lunatic asylum at Perth, rather than face hanging.
George Chalmers – The Tollbooth Bludgeoner
On the 21st December 1869, George Chalmers, a 45 year old vagrant broke into the house of the Tollbooth Keeper, John Miller. Chalmers beat him to death with a crowbar before stripping him, changing into the stolen clothes and absconding with his other possessions.
The police identified him from the clothing he left behind, and recent 10 day sentence for theft. To catch him they circulated the above images (coloured in to highlight his characteristic red beard).
Chalmers was arrested the following May, still wearing the murdered mans clothing.
Whilst he was known to have some mental health issues and a brain fever, he was convicted, and sentenced to hang. He died on October 4th 1870 behind a screen, the first private execution in Perth Prison.
John Ellis – The Executioner
Whilst John Ellis was not an inmate of Perth prison, he spent a great deal of time within its walls. He was the senior executioner of the United Kingdom and ended the lives of over 148 inmates between 1901 and 1923. Ellis executed several notable men at Perth, including Alexander Edmonstone, a convicted murderer with a denied insanity plea.
However, the role of executioner was not an easy one and eventuallyEllis attempted to take his own life.He failed in thisand was charged for the botched suicide, serving 12 months in prison:he succeeded in his next attempt however. John Ellis died on the 20th September 1932, the distress of having caused so many deaths finally being too much to bear.
Stanislaw Myszka
Stanislaw was the last man to be executed at Perth Prison, on the 6th February 1948, and was hanged by the infamous Albert Pierrepointe.
Myszka was convicted of the murder of Catherine McIntyre, who had been found beaten to death in 1949 after being robbed of £90 and her wedding ring. A hideout was later found near to her home which contained a razor, a sawn-off shotgun covered in blood and a servicemen’s railway ticket stub. Myszka was suspected after it was found that the weapon used in the murder, could have been from a farm in which he had once laboured.
Throughout the court case he maintained his innocence. The prosecution however claimed to have incontrovertible proof that he was the murderer: hair of his was matched to that left on the razor blade. Whilst the forensics of the time were very basic, and would now not be considered thorough enough, this landmark use of hair resulted in a guilty verdict; this was delivered after only 20 minutes of jury deliberation.
Perth Prison today
In 1996 the prison underwent extensive renovations, which resulted in the accidental uncovering of burials, later confirmed to belong to inmates from the Napoleonic era. The bodies were reburied in sanctified, but unmarked, graves within the walls of the prison after the renovations were complete.
In 1999 HMP Friarton was merged with Perth Prison, with Friarton becoming the main hall for HMP Perth.To this day, Perth prison still holds over 650 inmates from various criminal backgrounds, serving a variety of prison sentences.
[1]‘HMP Perth’ (Sps.gov.uk) <https://www.sps.gov.uk/Corporate/Prisons/Perth/HMP-Perth.aspx> accessed 2 December 2020
[2]‘Robert Reid ~ Architect’ (Made in Perth ~ Official Website ~ SC044155, 2013) <http://madeinperth.org/robert-reid-architect/> accessed 2 December 2020
[4]Ibid. 1
[5]‘Royal Commission Appointed To Inquire Into The State Of Lunstic Asylums In Scotland, Great Britain’ (Thomas Constable 1857) <https://archive.org/details/reportwithanapp00britgoog/page/n202/mode/2up?q=Perth+Prison> accessed 2 December 2020
[6]Pershire Courier, ‘Prisoners Of War’ (1812) <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001173/18120709/007/0001> accessed 2 December 2020
[7]Ibid. 1
[8]Donelly B, ‘Perth Home Built By Napoleon’S Soldiers Goes Up For Sale’ Herald Scotland (2015) <https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13631307.perth-home-built-by-napoleons-soldiers-goes-up-for-sale/> accessed 2 December 2020
[9]Ibid.1
[10]Ibid. 1
[11]Historic Scotland, ‘Scotland’s Prisons’ (Historic Enviroment Scotland 2016).
[12]Caledonian Mercury, ‘The New National Prison At Perth’ (1843) <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000045/18430309/006/0002> accessed 6 December 2020
[13]Dundee Courier, ‘The Prison At Perth – Indiscriminate Indulgence’ (1848) <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000160/18481206/002/0001> accessed 6 December 2020.
[14]Montrose Standard, ‘General Prison At Perth’ (1849) <https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0002751/18490511/058/0006> accessed 6 December 2020.
[15]Ibid.10